34 RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 



though it is vague and indistinct, in the existence of a Su- 

 preme, All-Powerful Being, and in the immortality of the soul, 

 which, they suppose, restored to its body, will enjoy the 

 future 011 those happy hunting-grounds which form the red 

 man's heaven. They also worship numerous inferior deities 

 or evil spirits, whom they endeavour to propitiate, under the 

 supposition that unless they do so they may work them evil 

 rather than good. They suppose that there is one god of 

 the sun, moon, and stars ; that the ocean is ruled by another 

 god, and that storms are produced by the power of various 

 malign beings ; yet that all are inferior to the Supreme Ruler 

 of the universe. We can trace in some of the tribes customs 

 and notions which have been derived from those of far dis- 

 tant nations. Thus, the tribes of Louisiana kept a sacred fire 

 constantly burning in their temples : the Natches, as did the 

 Mexicans, worshipped the sun, from whom their chiefs pre- 

 tended to be descended. By some tribes human sacrifices 

 were offered up, a custom which was practised by the 

 Pawnees and Indians of the Missouri even to a late period. 

 Several of the tribes buried their dead beneath their houses ; 

 and it was an universal custom among all to inter them in a 

 sitting posture, clothed in their best garments, while their 

 weapons and household utensils, with a supply of food, were 

 placed in their graves, to be used when they might be re- 

 stored to life. Several of their traditions evidently refer to 

 events recorded in Scripture history. The Algonquin tribes 

 still preserve one pointing to the upheaval of the earth from 

 the waters, and of a subsequent inundation. The Iroquois 

 have a tradition of a general deluge ; while another tribe be- 

 lieve not only that a deluge took place, but that there was 

 an age of fire which destroyed all things, with the exception 



